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Wonderful history here! Have never hiked up to Ribbon yet-looks awesome from these pics. The right side is more my speed these days! How wide is the crux on the 3rd pitch? Sacherer freed this in 62 WOW!!!

So Jim revealed the existence of a secret training boulder, not far from Camp 4, to the west

Dale Bard took me there on Labor Day weekend in 1972. We did a couple of laps each (TO the extent I remember any details at all, I remember it being no more than five or six feet long)
, but I was fascinated with chimneys and off-widths then, so on my next turn, I managed to chimney to its edge, but found the exit in a different league.

I should mention that Dale and I took -- and used -- a rope on that boulder while underclinging.

Apparently there are a ton of climbers who have never been to the Ribbon Falls Portal. What a shame. One and a half hour moderate forest hike with no bushwhacking and you get this enormous experience. It is the highest single-drop water fall in North America and it all happens in the very majestic nearly three-quarter circle of a portal. And even when the Falls is not rally operating, the spot is still nearly magical. And what? There must be something like twenty climbs up in that area currently, many of which are terrific, some world-class.

Just selectively read through this thread. What a fascinating and well told peice of game changing Yosemite history Peter. That 2000 photo session of yours must have flooded you with memories. I don't think you ever have to worry about alzheimers with such phenomenal detailed memory of several decades past. By the way, where are the lead pictures? Are their no modern takers?

This thread deserves another bump. Rick L and Mike F told me about the climb (separately) shortly after Peter pulled it off, but this thread was the first time I got a first person account from Peter. Getting Guido's account of the FA on aid made this rich thread even richer.

This route, the left side, was my best achievement. Even more so than the Salathe. It was so pure, so daunting, so steep and frankly so archetypal, that I never have been able to leave it behind. This means, the hour or two I was on it, those minutes reoccur over and over even 44 years later and daily.

Lead with what we had back then, namely nothing, it was a milestone. Pratt had stated that it was "the last free climbing challenge in Yosemite". He was shockingly wrong--there were thousands of great free routes still to do--- but I think we get his idea regardless. It was known, it was a horrifying prospect, and Kamps had aided it fully. That Bridwell's second ascent was so sullied by his secretly establishing a hanging belay 35 feet off the ground at the beginning of the undercling and that his scheme had taken 40 years to discover is also amazing. It might turn out that no one has ever repeated it in the original style by which it was accomplished. Namely totally runout and no dicking around. Subsequent ascents took forever to take place and again also were modified in ways, not just with wider pro.